Two teenage brothers who disappeared during a court case, have been banned from areas of Plymouth.

The boys, aged 17 and 14 and in full-time care, have been banned from the Keyham and North Prospect areas of the city.

They have been served with three-year anti-social behaviour orders for causing what a district judge described as "chaos and mayhem".

Police are now searching for boys to inform them of the orders and to return them to care homes.

Serve orders

Witnesses told Plymouth magistrates how the brothers shoplifted, and harassed shopkeepers and residents over past three years.

The brothers ran off in the middle of their trial, and probably are not aware of the restrictions of the orders.

The could face five years' detention for breaching the orders.

Police said there had been several sightings of the boys already in the areas from which they are banned.

Officers attempted to stop them on Wednesday night but they ran off.

Plymouth City Council's housing enforcement officer, John Drury, said of the use of such orders is never done lightly.

He said: "Any action that's taken, including any legal action, is only done after a rigourous process of other interventions that have been tried and been unsuccessful."